The race still has some laps to go. Jack Smith, GM’s chairman, is just 58, and he’s denied that he’s contemplating early retirement. And front runners often fade in contests for Big Three CEO jobs. While Pearce could fizzle, too, analysts and sources close to the company say he’s the clear favorite for now. And though GM and Pearce, 53, declined to comment, Pearce’s family says it’s a job he’d relish. When someone suggests Pearce is “the logical successor,” says his brother William, “he just kind of smiles.”
Pearce is an unlikely heir apparent in an industry that worships “car guys.” As a teenager, the Bismarck, N.D., native preferred woodworking to tinkering with cars; even today, his family says he’d rather craft a rocking horse for his grandchild than test-drive the new Corvette. But damage control -not fiddling with cars -made Pearce a star at GM. He began as a young lawyer in Bismarck fending off a lawsuit over GM’s Corvair, the car Ralph Nader made famous in “Unsafe at Any Speed.” He won that case, and went on to win even bigger trials for GM. His secret weapon: an engineering degree gave him the mechanical smarts to launch withering cross-examinations on arcane issues like brake yaw. “Harry Pearce was no small-town lawyer,” says Chrysler CEO Robert Eaton, who as a GM engineer was a witness in a case Pearce tried. Says a former aide: “[He] could send Perry Mason back to law school.”
When GM lured Pearce onto the payroll in 1985, he led teams of lawyers and engineers weeding out product defects to reduce lawsuits. By 1992 he’d moved up to general counsel and was advising board members as they ousted GM’s top managers. His public profile took off a year later, when he led GM’s inquiry into “Dateline’s” fiery crash test of a GM pickup. In a packed press conference Pearce explained how “Datehne” rigged the test. NBC later apologized, and other companies mimicked Pearce’s style in lashing out at inaccurate news stories.
But do such skills qualify him for the top spot at GM? Pearce’s boosters say his status as a relative newcomer in a company where most execs join right out of college is an advantage. “It’s quite refreshing to have a guy come in … like a man from Mars and say, ‘What the hell is going on here’,” says retired GM counsel Elmer Johnson. And some analysts say Pearce seems willing to do the tough work that lies ahead-like firing inept GM careerists or killing off some of the carmaker’s moribund brands. Says one: “Pearce is so ruthless, so determined to succeed…. He’s really what GM needs.”
Though Pearce’s critics dismiss hi-in as just “a staff guy” who’s unfit to run the whole company, even his detractors admit he has a real shot at the top. His two big advantages: he’s very close to the directors on GM’s powerful board, and his prime competitors for the No. 1 job are too young. If Pearce eventually gets the top spot, his role may be to mind the store until one of these fortysomething star executives, North American car boss Rick Wagoner or overseas chief Lou Hughes, is seasoned enough for the comer office.
That could be years away. This summer, Pearce’s job is to lower GM’s labor costs, whether it’s by winning the right to farm out parts-making duties to cheaper suppliers, paying new workers lower wages or enacting new work rules to increase efficiency. Most observers expect a peaceful contract-signing in the fall, since the union would be reluctant to launch a major strike weeks before a presidential election. But expect much posturing from both sides between now and then. That’s a familiar job for a man who’s spent much of his life helping GM make its case.
